The claimant saw her current workplace as having caused her mental health condition, and felt unable to return there. The reasonable adjustment duty was held to apply.

The claimant was a Professor at a School of Engineering. She felt she was subject to sex discrimination, and was absent from January 2010 with work-related stress and depression until her dismissal in April 2012.

There was evidence that she felt unable to return to work at the School of Engineering, albeit she wished to and felt able to make a gradual return to work at a different School. She believed her discriminatory treatment in the School of Engineering caused her disability, and she perceived hostility from those at the School as a result of it.

The tribunal had held there was not the necessary causal link with her disability for the reasonable adjustment duty and s.15 EqA to apply. The EAT disagreed and sent the case back to the tribunal.

It would be for the tribunal to decide whether the university’s treatment of her was reasonable or justified, on the facts.

The case is Sheikholeslami v University of Edinburgh, EAT, 2018 www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2018/0014_17_0510.html

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